On a sunny Saturday outside the Nashville Farmers' Market, dozens of children played in bounce houses, painted rocks and watched young performers sing and dance among clusters of pinwheels.

By providing a safe, fun-filled environment for kids to play in, Prevent Child Abuse Tennessee sought to shed light on the darker moments that thousands of Tennessee children experience each year when a caregiver abuses them. The local nonprofit has hosted Pinwheels for Prevention for five years but this year made it a family event that would spread awareness to Nashville-area parents and children.

"Prevention involves an entire community," said PCAT executive director Kristen Rector. "It's not a sole family responsibility. If we all get involved and start to talk about how we can protect kids, it's going to make a really big difference in the long term."

Rector said more than 17,000 child abuse incidents are reported in a year in Tennessee, and the children who are most vulnerable are those who are very young. In Davidson County, the district attorney's team investigates 1,200 cases a year on average.

“Prevention involves an entire community.”

Kristen Rector, Prevent Child Abuse Tennessee executive director

Representatives from several nonprofits related to child safety shared resources for those who attended, seeing it as an opportunity to spread awareness of the support systems that exist throughout Middle Tennessee.

Bettina Jones, a resource and referral specialist with Tennessee Child Care Resource and Referral Network, said her organization works with licensed child-care facilities to improve care and offers parenting classes. Child abuse often begins with neglect or yelling and then escalates to physical abuse, she said. It usually happens when other life events cause stress — a death in the family, losing a job — and the classes can help parents during those periods and reduce the likelihood of abuse.

"So many people come in who don't have a job, don't have enough food to eat or they don't have transportation," she said. "The need is a lot larger than most people realize."

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From left, Aunya Holtzclaw, Sarah Hayes and Kourtlyn Howard with Salama Urban Ministries sing at the Pinwheels for Prevention event Saturday at the Nashville Farmers Market.(Photo: Alan Poizner / For The Tennessean)

Josie Martinez, an interpreter for Nurses for Newborns, visits mothers of premature infants, teen moms, or those who may be suffering from postpartum depression to ensure mothers are getting the support they need and that their babies are not at-risk for neglect or abuse. Mothers of premature babies especially may not have the clothes or food they need to take care of a child's immediate needs, and the nonprofit helps provide supplies, medicine and guidance.

"Some days they will get depressed," she said. "Or, they are at home by themselves with this baby. This baby is crying and screaming. They don't know how to deal with it, especially first-time moms."

Children from Salama Urban Ministries in Nashville sang as families roamed the bounce house area, and the Metro Parks and Recreation dance division performed. State Rep. John Ray Clemmons, former Tennessee Titan Derrick Mason and NFL Network talent executive Stacey Garcia spoke in support of PCAT's mission.

"If you do see someone in need, please help them out," Mason said. "A little bit from you goes a long way, not just to that family, but to the community as well."